Nissan Skyline GTR at Red Rocks

Posted on Oct 4, 2018

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

I originally photographed this classic Nissan Skyline GTR for the late and much lamented Modified magazine at Red Rocks Park located outside of Denver.

Super Street magazine once had this to say about the magazine: “Modified was the ultimate auto magazine, where all the cars have a focus on function over fads. The brand covers tech and how-to performance tuning articles; project cars, engine builds, and suspension, tire, wheel, and other upgrades; extensive event coverage and 100’s of photos; and product buyers guides.” It was shuttered several years ago due to the vagaries of the contemporary magazine business.

The Skyline GTR is/was/always be the ultimate cult car and when any of them show up at Cars & Coffee events or car shows, they’re invariable crowded by young people who grew up on video games soaking up this amazing automobile that was never officially brought into the US. Now that the 25-year rule can be applied to these right-hand drive JDM cars, many are coming to America. The current model Nissan GT-R may be the spiritual successor to the Skyline and while it is an amazing cars in it’s own right, it—to me—lacks the same vibe.

How I made this shot: The above image was shot with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II N with the (now discontinued) EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM lens (at 108mm) with an exposure of 1/500 sec at f/10 and ISO 200.

Photographically the most interesting part of this story—to me and maybe to you because it addresses the old JPEG vs. RAW controversy—is what Modified’s Art Director told me when giving me the assignment. He said, “Just shoot JPEG’s for most of the shots but for any you think would make a good double-page spread, shoot in RAW.” I did what he asked but the photo he used for the magazine (the above image) and spread across across two pages was shot as a JPEG. Go figure.